How Genesis crept back into the classroom

The religious concept of creationism may be being ‘smuggled’ into schools via science

By Graeme Paton, Education Correspondent

12:01AM GMT 28 Nov 2006

Hundreds of state schools may be teaching the Biblical story of creation in science lessons, a leading academic said last night.

James Williams, head of science teacher training at Sussex University, said confusion over GCSE and A-level science syllabuses had "opened the door" to groups trying to widen understanding of creationism and its more recent off-shoot, intelligent design.

In September, a coalition of academics and clergymen sent teaching materials to every secondary school science department in the UK, suggesting that pupils should be allowed to debate Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

The group – Truth in Science – mailed a booklet and two DVDs to 5,700 private and state schools as part of a £20,000 project personally funded by its backers, who include senior professors in engineering from the universities of Leeds, Bristol, Sheffield and Cardiff.

Yesterday, Richard Buggs, the group's spokesman, said 59 schools had written back so far saying that the materials "were suitable for classroom use". However, critics said the number was likely to be much higher.

Mr Williams said last night that continuing ambiguity surrounding official Government guidance in biology meant hundreds more schools might be employing creationism as a tool to debate Darwin's theory that man evolved from apes.

"The problem we have got is that no one has carried out any proper research to find out how widespread the teaching of creationism and aspects of creationism are in science.

"There may be hundreds out there, but the Department for Education and Skills and Ofsted cannot give us straight answers."

The DfES says that creationism and intelligent design should not be "taught as subjects in schools, and are not specified in the science curriculum".

However, critics claim that the fine detail of syllabuses still leaves the door open for religious interpretations of life on Earth, such as the Bible story of God creating the world in six days, 6,000 years ago.

A new "21st century" science curriculum, launched this September, attempts to make the subject more appealing by promoting debate of "controversial" issues. Mr Williams said in some schools this legitimised the use of creationism to debate evolution.

It was fuelled by a new GCSE biology syllabus sent out this year by OCR, one of three exam boards in England, which said that pupils should be able to "explain that the fossil record has been interpreted differently over time (eg creationist interpretation)".

In England, debate over creationism in science has consistently focused on three independent state schools in the North-East run by Sir Peter Vardy, the evangelical Christian car dealer.

Last week, he denied in an interview that it was used in science lessons. "Creationism is not taught in my schools. That is stark raving crazy," he told the Times Educational Supplement. However, one Vardy school has been linked to the Truth in Science project.

Steve Layfield, head of science at Emmanuel College, Gateshead, was named as a member of the group's board of directors, before standing down from Truth in Science last month, apparently under pressure from Sir Peter himself.

But not everybody disagrees with the project. Nick Cowan, head of chemistry at the Bluecoat Secondary School, Liverpool, told The Guardian: "Just because it takes a negative look at Darwinism it doesn't mean it is not science. I think to critique Darwinism is quite appropriate."

Opposition to creationism has been led by Richard Dawkins, professor of Public Understanding of Science, Oxford University, and the Royal Society has said that creationism represents a move to "distort or misrepresent scientific knowledge and understanding to promote particular religious beliefs".

Last night, a spokesman for the DfES said that new guidance would clarify its position that creationism cannot be debated in science.